Of Honor
by Justice1109
Summary: An entire family is wiped out by the Deatheaters, erasing centuries of a pure-blood line. A Shield Guardian, Defender of the House, fails to provide the protection that could have saved them. Can the family find justice in the hands of their Guardian?SSOC
1. Fallen

Of Honor....  
  
An entire family is wiped out by the Deatheaters, erasing centuries of a pure-blood line. A Shield Guardian, Defender of the House, fails to provide the protection that could have saved them. Can the Family find justice in the hands of their Guardian when it locates the one man that can lead it to the source? Even when that man is Snape? Honor is found in the most unlikely of places...  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Fallen  
  
*****  
  
Lub...Dub-dub. Lub...Dub-dub. Lub...Dub-dub. "Fida...spes...et honoria...."  
  
The Shield Guardian stirred in centuries old sleep. Something had awakened it.  
  
Lub...Dub-dub. Lub.....Dub...dub. Lub...Dub....dub. "...ibidem..."  
  
A heart beat. Eyes opened staring into darkness. The Shield Guardian reached out with its senses. There was nothing but inky darkness and silence, except for the heartbeat. Strong at first...but now growing steadily weaker.  
  
Lub......dub.....dub. Lub......dub......dub. Lub....dub....dub.  
  
"...nata corpus." the voice whispered. The Guardian stirred again, this time stronger. The Head of the House called. It pushed against the bonds that restrained it. Struggling...it knew this was not right somehow. It pushed harder against its invisible bindings, confusion turning into burning rage.  
  
Lub....dub......dub. Lub....dub......dub. Lub....dub.........dub.  
  
There was a horrid surge of light as the Shield Guardian was thrown forward onto a cold floor with a loud clash of metal striking stone. Whatever force had bound it had been broken suddenly and without warning. Turning its head, it saw a man lying on the floor, the Shield Pendant bearing the house symbol of the Raven clutched in his hand.  
  
Lub......dub........dub. Lub......dub........dub. Lub.......dub.........dub.  
  
It was then that the smell and taste of acrid smoke flooded the Guardian's senses. The air was heavy with it. Wall tapestries began to smolder near-by as the fire consumed them and spread upward towards the vaulted ceilings. Standing quickly, it moved across the room to kneel down beside the one that summoned it. The man was barely conscious. He turned his head to look up at it, the blue eyes struggling to focus.  
  
Lub........dub........dub. Lub.........dub........dub. Lub..........dub.........dub.  
  
"Master..." the voice emanating from the depths of the helm was unearthly and hollow. The man was broken somehow, but the Guardian could not reason why. The man raised his free hand and placed it on the metal helm. "...command me."  
  
Lub............dub............dub. Lub...........dub.............dub. Lub.............dub................dub.  
  
The smoke grew thicker, swirling around the stoic figure and the man that lay dying on the floor. He choked...his eyes rolling back into his head as he struggled for breath. The Guardian reached down and raised him gently up, cradling him against its chest. The hand that was on the helm slid down and suddenly clutched at the blue and black armor.  
  
Lub............dub............dub. Lub...........dub.............dub. Lub.............dub................dub.  
  
He gasped for breath as the smoke thickened. Above them, the Guardian could hear the popping and snapping of the ceiling supports as the fire began to consume them. It waited patiently for the words it needed the man to speak...Res gestai...his dying statement. He looked up at the Guardian and smiled pitifully.  
  
Lub............dub............dub. Lub...........dub.............dub. Lub.............dub................dub.  
  
"The house...fallen...." his breathing quickened as his hand clutched desperately at the Guardian's armor as though trying to draw strength from the silent figure. It continued to kneel there statuesquely, looking down at the man through the decorative helm. He struggled for breath as pieces of burning timber began to fall from above, landing around them on the hard stone floor, shattering. A thousand brilliant, albeit deadly, sparks filled the air like tiny orange stars. "Death.......eaters....."  
  
Lub...............dub.....................dub. Lub......................dub. Lub..................................dub.  
  
The man, Lord Raven, looked up at the Guardian. His eyes were a piercing blue....begging....commanding. Lord Raven stiffened suddenly in pain, a throttled moan rattling from his esophagus, as his hand clutched at the leather straps adorning the Guardian's armor. He exhaled one last time and his hand fell limply to his side. The Guardian pulled Lord Raven to its chest, bending down over him as burning timbers continued to fall, the ceiling collapsing.  
  
Lub..........  
  
"The house...fallen..." 


	2. Ancient Creatures

Disclaimer~ J.K Rowling owns the entire Harry Potter universe, which leaves the rest of us in awe of her and with the only comfort of borrowing them from time to time to entertain ourselves whilst we toil endlessly for  
no reason at all................ :)  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Ancient Creatures  
  
"Pay attention, children." Professor Habermehl commanded gruffly from the front of the classroom. The short man reminded Hermione very vividly of Professor Flitwick. He was short and very squarely built, looking as though someone had taken a block of wood and simply set it on top of two undersized, boxy legs.  
  
The class settled and he stumped forward, stroking his luxuriously red beard that flowed over his round stomach like a small ruby waterfall. He smiled. "Your homework..." there were a few groans from around the room, two of which had come from both Ron and Harry. "...is to research and discuss a magical creature."  
  
He stopped and looked around the room, fixing his green eyes on several students. "However...it can't be anything that we have covered so far."  
  
Hermoine sat forward in eager anticipation of the assignment as her two companions groaned again.  
  
"It has to be done on an ancient creature." he looked at the two girls sitting near the front of the room. "Unicorns and dragons are acceptable...but not very challenging. Lavender...Parvati...."  
  
The two girls smiled. "There can be no duplicates of any paper. Each student must write three scrolls on one creature. In other words...Parvati, if you write about dragons, Lavender, you'll have to write about something else. I suggest talking to your classmates and finding out who is interested in what creature." he stumped towards the blackboard and grabbed a small piece of chalk. "I've prepared a list for those of you with questions...." he looked over his shoulder at Hermione, who already had her hand in the air. She lowered it sheepishly with a slight blush as Professor Habermehl began to write.  
  
After he finished scrawling the names of various creatures across the blackboard, he wiped his hands off on his stumpy pants legs and returned to running his hands lovingly down his beard. "As you can see here..." he indicated the board with a stubby finger. "...there are more than enough creatures to go around."  
  
Hermione hastily began to write the list down. The bell sounded ended of class and the professor dismissed them.  
  
The trio left the class, beginning down the halls. "Can you believe all of that?" Ron gasped in exasperation. "Honestly, just because he's the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher doesn't mean that he has to flood us with home work right off. We've only been back two days!"  
  
Hermoine regarded Ron with an imperious glare. "Ron, you have to accept that we need to know this stuff." he rolled his eyes at Harry as she continued in her speech. "What if we were to run across one of those creatures some day? It would be useful to know what to expect. Besides, it's only three scrolls."  
  
"Hermione's right, Ron." Harry replied, receiving a beaming smile from Hermione and a look of betrayal from Ron. "You never know what kinds of things are out there any more."  
  
"Other than dragons or unicorns, name one thing on that board that we will ever run into." Ron argued. "These are all ancient creatures, 'mione!"  
  
"That's not the point, Ron!" Hermione argued. Ron shook his head and Hermione frowned. "You're impossible sometimes! Well, I'm going to the library to research the creature that I've chosen. Are you coming or not?"  
  
"I'll come." Harry stated and Ron shot him a dirty look. Harry suspected that this meant Ron would not be attending. "Which one have you chosen?" he asked her.  
  
She frowned in thought for a moment. "I think that the Shield Guardian sounded pretty interesting. I remember reading something somewhere that mentioned them..."  
  
"Gah!" Ron waved his arms in disgust. "I'm going back to the dorms!"  
  
Harry and Hermione looked at each other in puzzlement and continued on to the library. When they arrived, Hermione and Harry were pleased to notice that it was not very crowded, which would leave them the majority of books in which to choose from.  
  
Harry decided to do his on Golems, which had been thought to have been used as servants at one time. After locating a particularly large, and rather dusty, tome on the subject...he joined Hermione at the large table. Harry laid the book down as carefully as he could on the table and began to leaf through the contents page.  
  
He located the chapter and flipped through the book until he came to the page. There were a few artists' renderings on the page, but he didn't page any attention to them as he went down the list, naming them off.  
  
"Stone...earth...iron...flesh...bone..." he paused and looked back at the picture of a towering mechanical wreck. It looked like a badly wrecked muggle car standing on its end. "Could you imagine a flesh golem?" he grimaced, looking down at the picture.  
  
She looked over at the picture that Harry pointed to indicating the iron monster. "If that picture is any indication of how it would turn out, then no." she wrinkled her nose in disgust and continued to flip through the pages in her book until she found what she had been searching for.  
  
She scanned down through the page and frowned. "It doesn't really mention anything specific about them, just looks like general information." she remarked, running through the sparse paragraphs on the subject.  
  
"What does it say?" Harry asked, glad to take his mind off of a flesh golem lurching awkwardly at him and having to think of a spell that could possibly banish it. He shook his head slightly to clear the thought.  
  
"Well, it does say that Shield Guardians were created by the original Heads of House in order to provide their family with a means of protection to be used as a last resort against attack." she read down further, continuing. "It also says that Guardians were completely loyal to the entire family, through the generations and would answer whenever summoned by the means of a 'token'...whatever that is."  
  
She read straight from the text, Harry leaning over the table to see as well. The Guardians seemed a whole lot more interesting, and a whole lot less disgusting, that the golems did.  
  
"Shield Guardians are said to have the marking of their House somewhere on their person so as to identify who they are. Guardians were often used to defend against infractions of honor..."  
  
"Malfoy's would have had a hard time with that one..." Hary remarked quietly.  
  
"...and sometimes assassination of Houses. Shield Guardians are created and circumstances regarding and surrounding the creation of each Guardian is different, varying from House to House." she repeated the words of the text, her words becoming more excited as she read. "The more common varieties of Guardians were often knights or depicted the House Crest, or Animal. It is important to remember that Guardians are created and have a high tolerance to magical spells. It is thought that many Guardians were only banishable by their masters, the Head of House. More common varieties of Guardians included, but were not limited to...Vikings, horses, knights, dragons, griffons...." she paused for a moment, reading down the list. "There's more here...Guardians are summoned forth from either a pendant, or other similar item of jewelry, that normally bears an insignia or symbol of the House Crest. That must be the 'token'. Guardians are considered extremely dangerous when confronted and are not to be dealt with lightly. The last known sighting of a Guardian was over three-hundred years ago when the House of Remsberg challenged the House of Dunston, by which both Houses suffered an irreparable loss."  
  
Harry was intrigued. He wondered suddenly if his House had a Shield Guardian at one time. He mused over this thinking that if so, it must have been a stag....  
  
"Listen to this..." Hermione said in excitement, pulling Harry from his revelry with a start. "The destruction of a House does not imply the loss of the Guardian. It is not known what exactly happens to the Guardian, other than it is released from servitude. Let it be noted while this has not been known to have occurred, that a Guardian that has been released from servitude in this manner would be considered extremely dangerous as there is no one to control it."  
  
Hermoine and Harry looked at each other and she smiled. "Do you think it's possible that they still exist?" Harry asked, craning his head to see if an illustration had been left on the page.  
  
"Harry, this was centuries ago." Harry still looked doubtful. "If even they did still exist, they would be forgotten about. It states here that Guardians have not even been seen in centuries."  
  
Harry shrugged in indifference. "Stranger things gave happened." 


End file.
